Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽) yesterday said that she hoped to promote tolerance and showcase diversity, after she shared the story of a 41-year-old woman who underwent fertility treatments to bear a child, as the expectation to have children fell to her after her brother came out as homosexual.
Chen’s post on Facebook has attracted controversy, with women’s groups saying that understanding of gender equality in Taiwan is inadequate.
The woman had been married for 16 years and had not intended to have children, but at age 39 her younger brother came out to the family as homosexual and the traditional pressure of continuing the family lineage fell on her shoulders, Chen’s post said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The woman’s brother said that surrogacy abroad would be too expensive and he suggested helping raise his sister’s child, it added.
After having three miscarriages, the woman successfully underwent fertility treatment, it said.
People have been posting online “your womb is not your own,” to which Chen responded in an interview yesterday following a meeting at the Legislative Yuan.
After a lengthy discussion with the family in question on Wednesday evening, Chen said she can confirm that the family respects the woman’s reproductive autonomy and reached a consensus together.
Taiwan is evolving into a more diverse and accepting society, with same-sex parents and single-mother households, she said.
With the lack of progress on amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法), Chen said she hoped the Ministry of Health and Welfare would complete the proposal agreed upon in the previous legislative session to decouple surrogacy regulations from other assisted reproduction issues.
The Democratic Progressive Party’s Department of Gender Equality responded yesterday on Facebook, saying that traditional marriage and childbearing expectations reduce women to mere baby making machines.
The department also urged the KMT to better prioritize gender equality education within the party.
Additional reporting by Chen Cheng-yu
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